Blues at Canucks preview
St. Louis seeks fifth straight victory; Hughes returns to Vancouver lineup
by Kevin Woodley / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
BLUES (9-3-3) at CANUCKS (9-3-2)
10 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-MW, NHL.TV
The Game
Quinn Hughes will return after missing one game for the Vancouver Canucks, who will try to extend their point streak to eight games when they host the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
The defenseman, who missed Vancouver's 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday because of a bruised knee he sustained against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, has seven assists in his past six games and is tied for third in scoring among rookies with 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 13 games. Hughes skated on his own Monday and with teammates Tuesday morning.
Jacob Markstrom will start in goal for the Canucks, who are 5-0-2 in their past seven games. A win would give them their longest point streak since Dec. 1-17, 2013 (7-0-1).
Jordan Binnington will start for the Blues, who have won four straight games, three of which have come in overtime.
Players to watch
Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a four-game point streak.
Canucks forward Elias Pettersson has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his past seven games, and 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in his past 12.
They said it
"As you get older, you appreciate those sorts of milestones. To be able to say you played 1,200, it's a nice round number." -- St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who will play his 1,200th NHL game
"Right when it happened and I felt a lot of pain in my knee it was kind of a little bit of a scare because you don't know what that could be, but it's all good and pretty fortunate." -- Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes on missing one game with a bruised knee
Blues projected lineup
Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Robert Thomas
Zach Sanford -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Alexander Steen -- Tyler Bozak -- Sammy Blais
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist
Carl Gunnarsson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Justin Faulk
Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen
Scratched: Robert Bortuzzo, Robby Fabbri
Injured: Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder)
Canucks projected lineup
J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Adam Gaudette
Josh Leivo -- Brandon Sutter -- Jake Virtanen
Tim Schaller -- Jay Beagle -- Loui Eriksson
Alexander Edler -- Tyler Myers
Quinn Hughes -- Christopher Tanev
Jordie Benn -- Troy Stecher
Jacob Markstrom
Thatcher Demko
Scratched: Sven Baertschi, Ashton Sautner, Oscar Fantenberg
Injured: Tyler Motte (foot), Antoine Roussel (knee), Micheal Ferland (concussion protocol)
Status report
Thomas and Blais swapped spots on the Blues first and third lines. … Sautner, who left in the first period against the Sharks on Saturday because of an upper-body injury, practiced on Monday and has been cleared to play.
Stat pack
Perron has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past four games. ... Binnington is 5-1-0 with a .926 save percentage in his past six starts. … Horvat has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past seven games. ... Boeser has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past five games.